Erin Griffith

*WSJ, CNBC, FT say it isn’t; but perhaps the blogosphere is not so sure? Dow Jones today published a list of private equity firms interested in bidding for Lehman Brothers’ wealth management arm, Neuberger Berman, worth around $10 billion. The Journal’s list included obvious suspects like KKR, Bain Capital and TPG. The FT counted Hellman […]

We’ve bemoaned a battered IPO market for almost a year now, with CNN reporting today that they’re down 75 percent. But is it unusual? PE pros have said that the last unprecedented, unsustainable buyout boom was also an unprecedented, unsustainable IPO boom. They’re not expecting it to bounce back anytime soon. (Meanwhile some particularly bearish […]

Dog Days Edition: The New York Post, The Blackstone Group, infrastructure analysis, and lazy(?) Wall Streeters, and bored reporters, and a slow, slow exit market. Reuters: Don’t expect the exit market to break and turn attractive anytime soon, Candover’s chairman said. New York Observer: Laid off Wall Streeters are enjoying their time off. That’s cute. […]

No one’s selling today unless they have to, and in traditional media, some of them just have to, a buyout pro told me. There isn’t a lot of happy news for print media companies this summer. Cox Communications is trying to sell some of its newspapers, which PE firms are interested in, one source says, […]

These days, the word “big” is a relative term for PE professionals. In a semi-regular column, I’ll explore how the some of the biggest (or at least most interesting) deals are getting done.Today’s Big Deal (Kind Of) goes to Sentinel Capital Partners, for its purchase of Mobile Dental Services. My pick is a bit of […]

It’s the numbers edition: One bankruptcy, $3 billion in assets for sale, $900 million in fresh capital, two troubled mattress companies, many a unitranche loan, and one train stopped dead in its tracks. Oops: Cadence Innovations is bankrupt. Again. Yucaipa was the lone wolf PE backer among the handful of hedge funds that brought the […]

Today I’m looking at two white papers, one from Pepper Hamilton on distressed debt investing and one from Pricewaterhouse Coopers on growth through M&A. Both papers open with some (seemingly) obvious statements: For growing businesses, PwC argues, the middle market is still in an OK, or even strong, position. Yep, we know. Likewise, Pepper Hamilton […]

In question: The SEUI, Freddie, and Your Neighborhood I-Banker, and corporate boardrooms Icahn Report: Carl Icahn is up to his old tricks again, this time criticizing Marty Lipton’s bemoaning of the Anheuser Busch takeover. Icahn writes, “His opinion suggests that it is a good thing that the maker of Budweiser should be protected from takeovers […]

And Mrs. Fields makes 32. The struggling pastry maker officially filed for a pre-packaged Chapter 11 plan yesterday. Capricorn Holdings will lose its control over the company to bondholders.I posted the original list about a month ago, so it’s time to update July’s LBO-Backed Bankruptcy List. New additions: Mervyn’s + Mrs. Fields. Download the latest […]

Wordle: I’ve been introduced to a brilliant little Web site called Wordle thanks to Infectious Greed’s clever comparison of Ben Bernanke’s 2008 and 2007 Jackson Hole speeches. Inspired, I “wordled” the PEhub.com feed, and came up with this. It doesn’t really tell us much, or lead to any groundbreaking conclusions, except that, on any given […]